Cotton Club Parade is a celebration of Duke Ellington’s years at the famed Harlem nightclub in the 1920s and ’30s, when the joint was jumping with revues featuring big band swing and blues, dancers, singers, comedians and novelty acts. With Ellington’s music as the centerpiece, this production re-imagines one of the composer’s Cotton Club floor shows right here on the City Center stage.

Cotton Club Parade is part of a new producing partnership between New York City Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center that will combine the organizations’ specialties: musical theater and jazz.